Show BAYONETS THREE HUNS BRAINS FOURTH SAVES DAY FOR BRITISH bob hanna of vancouver wins victoria cross for bravery in action one of the most thrilling narratives of the war if not of all time blows up hun machine gun IV and fights single handed in trench no C S M robert annna 1 canadian I an infantry In for conspicuous bravery y ln in attack when his company in met with most severe enemy resistance and sit all the company officers became casual ves UM A strong point heavily prot protected Acted by wire and held by machine run gun had beaten oil off throe three assaults aai aulta of tile the company with heavy casualties this warrant officer under heavy machine gun and rifle fire coolly collected a party of 0 men and leading them against the strong point rushed through the wire and personally bayo netted throe three of the enemy and brained the fourth capturing the position and atlen silencing len cing the machine gun this most cour courageous ageous action displayed courage and personal bravery ot of the highest order at this most critical ino moment nt ot of the attack was responsible tor for the he capture of a most important point and but for or his daring action and determined handling of a do desperate sperate dB berate situation the attack would not have succeeded C 8 xo M outstanding gallantry personal courage and determined leading of 0 his company te Is deserving of 0 the highers possible reward prom from the british official ga zette bette fought huns single handed and so sergeant Sergen nt major now lieutenant bob hanna of vancouver B 01 received ohp victory cross the reprint from the official gazette reads almost like a hundred other thumbnail sketches of the lie bravery of the boys in the trenches tren dies but the last few lines give it more or less distinction to hanna it merely was a days work to the men of the twenty ninth vancouver battalion the victory cross which Is securely pinned to hannas waistcoat Is one of the thrilling personal narratives of the entire war if not in ili fact of all time stories of gallantry and self sacrifice will be told while the world endures but it will remain for a new race to roll up a single record to overshadow that of hanna who dropped in a trench all alone and single handed fought the cream of the prussian guards the men who never were defeated till then and who nho went down one after another before tills this medium sized young lumberman from the forests of british columbia one moment hannas life worth a penny A few minutes later lie he had saved a battalion and a little while later he was transformed oh on the field from a sergeant major to a lieutenant the government hns has had hanna sit for or his portrait for the national gallery over the top twenty two times it all happened at the battle of vimy aldge this particular incident tools took place p lace at hill 70 hanna had been in many of the worst battles of fw war before the valiant canadians settled down to their part of tills this slaughter of vimy ridge hanna had been over the top twenty wo two times had been at grips wilh the germans on numberless occasions and although stumbling amid death and bursting shells for dats flajs at a time had escaped injury almy was a bloody spot the canadians were there as they were at the bamme cypres ypres lens and daele near hill 70 was a stub of a trench which the canadians bad come to realize was the worst spot they had to face it was only a link and hardly could be seen but it was known to be a nasty point and the twenty ninth battalion was told to take it for two hours waiting for dawn the battalion crawled out on its belly in no mans land gand waiting to rush over and surprise the huns whose trench was yards away unknown to the canadians d tile the huns were crawling out from their dubont to initiate initiate the same movement against the canadians at the same me moment two barrages started one from the germans and one from the canadians guns the two lines of crouching men arose and plunged toward tich tach other the bayonet clash was brief the ground quickly wa was strewn with deao deac and the germans backed up to tile the stub ot of a trench i which was to the soldiers like the root of an aching tooth wire en tangle ments stayed the pursuit of the canadians who however hewed their way through he blows up bachl machine ne gun six hundred and fifty men went over the top with uanna perhaps two thirds of this number went on toward the trenah trench but this remnant was decimated by a machine gun which the huns had set up on the parapet the crew of this gun gull play edIt on the canadians like a hose and all the officers were killed or injured nanna hanna plugged on in the face of the dreadful fire alre ile he had it a mills bomb and this lie he hurled burled at the machine gun an and d smashed it killing or injuring the men who were feeding in the bullets bullet R it had done its deadly work nanna hanna was standing alone all about him wore were lying his comrades either dead or badly wounded part of the battalion had spread and lie assumed would come around back of the trench and enter it from the tha other end he jumped into the trench and in it second saw a row of stalwart prussians coming single file tills this was necessary because of the narrowness of the excavation toward him they rushed him As the first one was about five yards away he pulled pulle d the trigger on the only cartridge he had in his rifle the cartridge was well aimed and no 1 of the fifty fifth prussian guards was out of the war forever the second one charged over his fallen comrade but met the bayonet hold held in the viselike vl grip of the young lumberman from vancouver A third prussian also of the ff efty ty afif fifth th dropped down in the trench as if lie he had collapsed but as this was no time for taking chances hanna now realizing that he was alone in a nest of the enemy used his bayonet with effective results A fourth prussian appeared almost from nowhere he had bad the stock of his rifle in both balds on a level with his shoulder and was preparing to drive the other end home in the form of the canadian but hanna was too quick for him there was mas a momentary grinding of teeth a clash and the fourth prussian measured his length on the earthen floor blows up two dugouts Dug outs bianna ahn tells of what happened during the next nest few minutes 1 I then discovered that I 1 was alone in the trench and I 1 was wondering where the other men were I 1 moved along and at the entrance to a dugout which was ot of course dark I 1 heard the buzzing of voices 1 I of course knew that I 1 was in a dangerous position I 1 had no bombs I 1 had used my last one on the gun I 1 looked around and discovered a german bomb about that time I 1 heard the prussia prussians ns coming out of the entrance to the dugout and I 1 waited till they were about on top of me when I 1 let the bomb fly it went off right in their faces it was quiet then 1 I moved on a few feet further an and d saw another dugout entrance it was the other end of a U there I 1 heard more voices it look very promising for me I 1 hunted around quickly and found two more ge german aman bombs I 1 threw the two into the dugout holding them just long enough so they exploded a second after they left my hand there was no more noise in this dugout hannas II annas story stops here when he tells it he was the only man of his company to be left by the withering fire of the machine gun lie he had stilled with a lucky throw of a bomb there were no officers anywhere about some soldiers of another battalion appeared d presently and he took command of them and led a charge through the entire trench cleaning it up as the saying goes ht he saves two battalions the whole maneuver was quickly understood A battalion which had been to join the twenty ninth had gone by the trench some of the twenty ninth also had biad gone by hanna alone had stopped at the objective jec tive those who mho had not gone too far had not been able to g get e t far enough the prussians had figured on the canadians passing the trench their program undoubtedly had bad been to rise from their dugouts and with the machine gun which they did not expect to lose wipe out the men of the t two wo battalions it nil all night might easily enough have been done but for the pluck and the quickness of hanna it was some time later when the young man man from british columbia was called to brigade quarters the commander had learned all about his dar ienir ln exploit the young sergeant major who twice before this had been reeni recommended mended tor for honorable mention was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and now he Is back lp in france waiting for Fi another nother opportunity to add to the glory of canada and us as he proudly says to do what an irishman should |